Laura Dickinson: Planting seeds that are growing deep roots

Her heart has always been in missions. Though it looks much different today than she ever imagined, even in her wildest dreams.

“That makes no sense Lord,” Laura Dickinson voiced when faced with the change in her life that would eventually lead her where she is today.

At that time in Laura’s life, she was living in L.A. and working as the Central Europe Regional Director for a missions education organization. She and her husband Dan drove out to L.A., which served as their honeymoon, and work began for them both, in the City of Angels.

“L.A. chewed us up and spit us out,” Laura laughed infectiously. They lived in someone’s back yard in a guest house for $1,000 a month and both worked diligently in education; Dan teaching at a Christian school; all during the 2009 recession. They thankfully had each other, but it wasn’t an easy time for them.

The Lord then started to stir Laura’s heart when she became pregnant with their first daughter, Hannah. Hannah was born and raised in L.A. for 2 years. This was when questions started rising up in Laura’s mind about women who were pregnant and what resources were out there for them.

“We were making peanuts and I started wondering how in the world do people make it?” she explained, “God totally provided a loving marriage and a roof over our heads, but what I got concerned about was all the other stuff you need when you have a baby; diapers and a crib…...”

She started asking is there a place that helps in situations like this?

“I knew women were getting pregnant, but where were they going?”

Eventually, while living in L.A. she learned about Foothills Pregnancy Resource Center in Duarte, CA., and later began volunteering and doing sexual integrity talks with the teens.

About this time the organization she was working for was going through a transition and she started asking, “God what do you want me to do?”

Should they go back to Kansas to their family? Teach somewhere else? Nothing truly felt right, and Dan still had his job in L.A. There were so many uncertainties, but it did seem certain that the Lord was going to move them, and the idea of working at a pregnancy center came to the forefront of her mind.

“I was just like Sarah and laughed,” she smiled, referring to the story in the Bible when the Lord tells Sarah that she is going to have a child at her old age.

In the end, they found their way to Elizabethtown, Ky where Laura was heading to do just what the Lord had told her…. go and work at a pregnancy center.

“We had always loved the Elizabethtown movie,” she said smiling, and so their adventure began as they started to sew seeds and grow roots in this town they now call home.

Laura took the Executive Director position at Clarity Solutions, a pregnancy resource center right here in town, and life has never been the same.

“I knew Clarity was a special place,” she said. She has now been leading the organization for 6 years coming up in July, “I like to say that Clarity was the best-kept secret when I first got here.”

She explained that the former director was an amazing woman that left Clarity at the perfect place for her to direct into this new season.

Today there are now 2 campuses, one in Radcliff and one in Elizabethtown. The staff has grown from 8 to 15, and through it all she is quick to give credit to the Lord.

“There is a lot of time seeking Him as a staff,” she explains, “I really see Clarity as a big tree; if our roots are strong in the gospel; the branches are the fruit from the work of the staff, and this helps to give our clients the shade.” She describes a huge Sequoia with spanning branches, and thick roots, that will span time for forever.

She describes God as the ultimate Gardener that gives their organization direction on how to cultivate and prune so this tree can grow and produce more and more and more.

Clarity Solutions recently had to transition quickly to serve their clients during the pandemic that has uprooted so many lives, but fortunately, they are still able to provide medical services. Every year Clarity Solutions hosts its annual banquet, which provides half of its annual budget. Without the banquet, they wouldn’t be able to serve the clients the way they do.

“In the midst of COVID-19 some of the clients we have seen would not have had anywhere else to go,” she said.

This banquet not only provides funding for half of their annual budget, but it’s an incredibly important platform for them to be able to share with the community about what is going on within the organization currently; a recap of the year so-to-speak.

“It allows us to let people know what God is stirring in our hearts,” she said excitedly. “and we have a BIG announcement!”

To find out the BIG announcement and be a part of this inspiring event tune in on Tuesday, April 28th at 7P! You can watch via their website and Facebook Live.

You too can be a part and help in nurturing the Sequoia that is sure to be standing long after we are all gone. 

For more information on how you can donate and take part in Clarity Live!: https://supportclarity.org/clarity-live/.

For more on how you can support them: https://supportclarity.org/.

For more on the resources and services, they provide at Clarity and the work they do: http://www.clarityky.com/.